Humans have always wondered what is the secret to immortality, never thinking about the consequences of immortality. They will never be able to grasp the pain of outliving your friends and loved ones. To see them grow up and age while I remain trapped in this forever youthful body is a pain so unfamiliar and unrelatable to mortals that I questioned myself why I try to befriend and relate to them all the time. Ah, that’s because it was my job. I never tried to truly become acquainted or even form any sort of relationships with any humans, brushing off any attempts to deepen our relationships and only accepting them as ‘friends’. That is until I met you. So afraid I was of forming relationships that I closed myself off from interacting with anyone outside of streams. Yet somehow, you managed to wiggle your way into my life.

You were a new intern in Cover corp. Of course, you had to have some sort of sad or tragic story to your name that would have made you eligible to have a job here at Cover. God knows that man Yagoo has some sort of fetish for taking in broken people. The first time we met, you introduced yourself as my new assistant. I guess the old man figured that I needed some help since I've been getting more and more business deals and less and less time to work on them by myself. You were… actually useful! You helped to organize a lot of the paperwork and even recommend which ones could benefit us and which actually just wanted to leech off our company. It was nice having someone around to help and you were honestly pretty decent company.

Despite my better judgement, we grew close enough that I could even consider you a friend. Being with you provided a sort of… warmth to my heart. One that I had missed after all these years of closing myself off and trying to compensate by streaming in front of thousands of viewers. I enjoyed our small conversations and how we would often stay together in the office accompanying each other to do our own work. I also enjoyed how you would often play with my snow white ears and ‘fluff’ my tail as you call it despite my protests. Sure enough, I began to have feelings for you but I dare not pursue them and would rather bottle them up like how I would everything else.

I should’ve noticed earlier. The fact that you began to take breaks and disappear for weeks at a time. How you would look more and more paler as time went on. If only I noticed that you were no longer able to even focus on your work for longer periods of time. I always assumed that you were just overworking yourself or that you were tired. Oh what a naive and idiotic fox I was. It was all my fault. It was another day of us staying past working hours to finish up on our work and I never noticed you had passed out. I assumed that you were just taking a small nap. It wasn’t until about an hour later when I tried to wake you up to go home that I noticed something was very wrong.

No matter how many times I tried to shake you awake, you never responded. I had no choice but to call for emergency soon after. It had been a couple days since you were admitted into the hospital but you have yet to awaken. During these past few days, I confronted Yagoo and demanded to know your condition and the reasons why you had to disappear for weeks at a time. It felt like my whole world came crashing down when I saw his face looking at mine in pity and melancholy as he explained your condition and the reason why he took you into our company.

You had always been a rather unfortunate soul. Losing your parents at a young age and soon developing an unknown and degenerative disease which slowly but surely will sap the life out of you. You had been suffering for at least five years before Yagoo found you and took you in as a new employee. That was how you met me as well. Turns out he knew that you only had a little over a year left and he wanted you to have the last year of your life filled with happiness and positivity and left you under me. The most positive and cheerful fox Cover has to offer. Turns out my attempts at strictly being just friends with anyone and showing off a false sense of positivity all the time ended up giving the impression that I was the most cheerful person in the company. And it turns out this decision will soon make me the most miserable person here as well.

Unable to truly accept this, I rushed my way into your hospital, running past the nurses and doctors and going straight to your ward. You were awake! But.. why. Why were there numerous doctors and nurses surrounding you..? With each step heavier than the last, I slowly approached your bed and audibly gasped. I could sense it. You were at death’s door. No...NO! This is too soon! Warm tears dripped down my face as I loomed over you. The medical staff backed away and left the room in silent understanding, not wanting to disturb this final interaction between the two of us. Your pale face forced a weak smile as you saw me, your own tears gathered in your eyes.

“No...Please..Please don’t leave me..” I firmly grasped your hands and brought them up to my face, feeling the warmth of your hand on me for perhaps the last time.

“I..I’ll let you fluff my tail as much as you want! I’ll even let you call me wife! Just please… Please don’t leave me!” I could barely see your face through the tears in my eyes now, snivelling pathetically in front of you. How shameful. To think that your last memory of me would be me crying shamefully in front of you.

I felt your gentle and weak hands attempt to wipe away my tears, shaking with every movement as I felt you start to breathe harder, trying to catch your breath and buy as much time as possible. Now painfully aware of how little time I have left with you, I gently leaned down and placed a soft kiss on your lips.

“I..I love you.. I won’t ever forget you.”

“L-love..you to-..” You passed away with a peaceful expression, like there was nothing in this world that bothered you and that you were just taking a nap. An eternally peaceful nap. The long beep indicating a flat line resounded throughout the room, only drowned out by the sound of my wailing as I firmy hugged your head against my chest, not wanting to let go and separate from you forever.